If Glenn Howard is going to win his eighth straight Ontario men’s curling championship, he won’t be running the table this time.

Unlike last year in Stratford, where he went 12-0 all told, the Coldwater skip was handed his first defeat of this Dominion Tankard Wednesday by Joe Frans of Bradford, who stole three points over the first two ends and stole two more in the eighth for an 8-3 victory.

“We’ve been inconsistent so far, but that was by far our best effort,” said Frans, who improved to 3-2 and sits in a tie for fifth with Pat Ferris of Grimsby with two more draws yet to play Wednesday. “It’s one of those games where you look at it and basically give yourself a loss and just hope for the best, so to actually pull one out is a huge bonus for us, especially after dropping a couple.

“Our lead (Shawn Kaufman) put his rocks in great places and basically had them chasing us the whole game.”

John Epping of Toronto Donalda took over top spot at 4-0 after taking only three ends to beat Jake Higgs of Harriston 9-1, a seven-ender in the third sealing the deal.

Howard is 4-1, with Rob Rumfeldt of Guelph, who had the morning draw off, next at 3-1. Wayne Tuck of Brant is 2-2, Higgs and Howard Rajala of Ottawa Rideau are 2-3, Dayna Deruelle of Brampton is 1-3, Darryl Prebble of Toronto Royal Canadian is 1-4 and Bryan Cochrane of Ottawa City View is 0-4.

In the other morning games, Tuck scored five in the ninth to beat Ferris 9-5, Rajala cracked a five in the eighth to beat Cochrane 9-5 and Deruelle stole half his points in an 8-4 win over Prebble.